Find Lots of Great Coverage Here

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

Friday, December 5, 2008

The Untouchables

No, I'm not talking about the late, great television show (and pretty good movie).It's Winter Meetings time! All reports I'm reading say our man JimBow is ready to go out to Vegas and wheel and deal and put the Nats in the winner's circle.It got me to thinking: Who is an untouchable? After some Thanksgiving conversation with my brother and brother-in-law, I've come to a conclusion:Nobody. That's right. Nobody.

Now it would positively kill me to see Ryan Zimmerman go somewhere else. A solid citizen and quality player, the perfect face-of-the-franchise guy (though I'm willing to photoshop in someone else and make it faces of the franchise when Teixeira signs).

I would be pained beyond belief to see Jesus Flores go. Flores is JimBow's greatest contribution to the Nats, even if it was just a happy accident.

But if those moves have to be made to speed up the process of making this team good, make them. Do what it takes. When you lose 102 games, shake it up. The changes that should have been made haven't been made and apparently won't be made. And I will repeat: I truly hope the answer doesn't involve a trade of either of those two. I'm just to the point where I'm willing to swallow hard, take a deep breath and deal with it if such a move truly makes a difference.

Unrelated, I'm about to plunk down for my 2009 partial plan. They're offering the 300 section where I really like to sit for a pretty reasonable price, so it looks like 21-game Plan D has my name on it. My wife is still holding out for club seats. I may yet decide to just pick and choose my games this season - I had zero problem getting tickets for any non-plan game I wanted to attend last season. We'll see. Depends a lot on my mood about 2 p.m. (I have to pay by 3 to get the seats being held).

Also, I'm fully on board with anything that gets Frank Howard in a Washington uniform again. I wonder if he can still play first base? Just in case the Teixeira thing doesn't work out.

Steve Phillips was just on Sportscenter and said that if the Nationals don't get Mark Texeira, then they will be going for . . . wait for it . . . Manny Ramirez! And Phillips described the Nationals as Scott Boras' safety net to get Manny Ramirez the sort of deal Boras wants.

So I ask all of you, are you ready to get taken for a ride twice by Boras. Can you stomach a 4 or 5-year $20 million a year deal for a player who can yes, hit the snot out of the ball, but is also a flake who can go completely off the reservation and leave your team high and dry?And what sort of influence on young players could Manny have? Can he and Acta co-exist?

A Better Way To Play

About me

I'm a former newspaper writer and editor who has taken his skills online as a senior editor at AOL FanHouse (www.fanhouse.com). I'm also a reborn baseball fan. I waited 33 years to get another team in D.C. and finally got my wish - should have thought to ask for a better team while I was begging.